Following the Good Shepherd

Sermon for Misericordias Domini – Easter 2

1 Peter 2:21-25  +  John 10:11-16

It was 15 years ago last week that I preached my very first sermon here at Emmanuel, as your called shepherd, also on John chapter 10 and the Good Shepherd. And ever since, it has been my greatest desire and aim never to make the sermon, or anything in the church, about me, but always and only about Christ, the Good Shepherd.

How is Christ a good Shepherd? He’s a good Shepherd in many ways. He cares for His sheep and His lambs, for each and every baptized believer in His Holy Christian Church. He feeds His sheep—feeds us with His Word and Sacrament, forgives our sins, strengthens our faith and guards us from that easy slide into unbelief, into viewing life as the rest of the world views it, from an earthly perspective instead of from a heavenly one. He also leads His sheep—leads us by His Spirit and by His Word, teaching us so that we know what is right and wrong, and learn to choose the right and avoid the wrong as He empowers and encourages us by His Holy Spirit. And, like a shepherd, the Good Shepherd goes searching for the lost sheep, for the ones who stray from His Word and Sacrament and blunder into sin and impenitence, sending out His ministers to find them, accompanying them as they do, and then rejoicing when the lost are found and returned to the flock. These are tender, sweet images of Jesus, our Good Shepherd.

But the image in today’s Gospel is a bloodier one than that. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. Christ laid down His life for us. Suffered for us. Died for us. Stood between the wolf and the sheep and allowed Himself to be devoured, so that we might live.

Why? Who or what was the wolf that was prowling around, ready to pounce on us? The wolf here is a symbol of danger. We were in danger because of our own sins against God, because of our own selfishness, our own disobedience to God’s commandments, our misplaced trust in ourselves, our idolatry, our pride. Our sins meant death for us. They’re the reason why we die in the first place, and suffer every other evil and misfortune here on this earth. And our sins gave the devil power over us, to accuse us before God and to drag us away to hell. In the end, God’s own righteous anger over our sins is what would have allowed the devil to have us and death to take us and hell to torment us forever.

But then the Good Shepherd intervened—intervened by God the Father’s own will and design—to suffer the death we had earned for ourselves, in order to share His righteousness and His life with us, in order to Shepherd us here on earth and there in the life that awaits after this life. He laid down His life, knowing that it would be enough—enough to save anyone and everyone who believes in Him, who takes refuge in Him, who claims Him and Him alone before God the Father as the reason why He should forgive us and accept us and welcome us into eternal life, not because we’re such good people, but only because of Christ and His works for us.

Now, in this Gospel, Jesus also contrasts Himself with the hireling who is unwilling to suffer for the sheep. The hireling is in it for himself, to get paid. If it’s a question of him suffering or the sheep suffering, he’ll choose the sheep suffering. He’ll run away when the danger approaches.

So any number of men who called themselves prophets in the Old Testament preached what the people wanted to hear in order to build themselves up. Those who told them what they needed to hear, the earnest warnings from God to repent and believe in Him—they were usually hated and rejected. So, few were willing to suffer in that way.

Even the apostle Peter once fell into that trap. Instead of standing up against the men who came to Antioch from Jerusalem trying to force the Christians to live, not according to God’s Word, but according to human traditions and beliefs, Peter, seeking to avoid conflict and shame for himself, gave in to the human traditions being imposed by those men until the apostle Paul stood up and warned him and the other believers and turned their eyes back to Christ, who was crucified so that we might be free from the slavery of sin and from the slavery of trying to save ourselves by our works and from the slavery of manmade traditions, as if man had the right to regulate the things that God has left free.

In today’s Epistle, that same apostle Peter, having been restored to the truth of Christ and the freedom of the Gospel, calls on all Christians to imitate Christ specifically in doing good and in being willing to suffer for doing good. To this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow in his steps. We can’t follow the example of Christ in suffering for sins. His suffering for sins was the only payment for sins, the only atonement for sins that God accepts. We can’t pay for anyone’s sins before God, including our own. But still, St. Peter calls on us all in today’s Epistle to follow the example of Christ in suffering patiently, suffering for doing good. No deceit was found in His mouth. And so, as His people, no deceit should be found in your mouth, either. No twisting of the truth. No hiding of the truth.

Oh, and you could avoid much suffering in this world if you just allow deceit to come out of your mouth, or if you just remain silent when you know it would help your neighbor more for you to speak. It’s tempting to keep quiet, tempting to go along with the crowd, tempting to avoid having to suffer. But if you would be sheep who follow the Good Shepherd, then you must follow Him in this way, too.

Is He worth following? Is He worth suffering for? What does Peter say about Him? He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, should live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray. But you have now been brought back to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

So, yes, the Good Shepherd is worth following, worth suffering for, precisely because He is good, because He laid down His life for us and gives us healing by His wounds, the healing of the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, the adoption of sons, and the gift of eternal life. That’s what a good shepherd does.

Somewhat ironically, given recent events, the word Overseer that Peter uses here in the Epistle is the word that’s also translated as “bishop.” Christ is your true Shepherd and Overseer or Bishop. Nothing can change that. But He Himself has appointed shepherds and overseers in His Church to shepherd and to oversee on His behalf. Your shepherd and overseer under Christ is the one whom you called 15 years ago in the name of Christ to do this task, your “pastor” or “shepherd.” And he is called to do it after the example of Christ, in word and deed, and in suffering—called to do it, not as a lord of all, but as a servant of all; not as one who can demand obedience to his own word, but who points you always to God’s Word; not as a hireling, but as one who cares for the sheep entrusted to his care with all the love and compassion of Christ.

What a task we’ve all been given, as sheep of the Good Shepherd and as a pastor under the Good Shepherd! Who is up to it? None of us, on our own. But as Christ feeds and strengthens us by His Word and Sacraments, as He leads us and guards us by His Spirit and by His Word, He will make us up to the task of living as sheep in His fold, until He brings us safely into His heavenly pastures. May God grant it, for Jesus’ sake! Amen.